Is it worth having see through legends on a keyboard?

[meepcode]

So I am in the market for a keyboard, and I wanted to get my own keycaps, however, most gaming keyboards that I see are backlit with keycaps with see through legends.  I was wondering if it was worth it to have those see through keycaps or if it is not necessary.

[SpAmRaY]

It's all personal preference really.

[vim_commando]

That is purely personal preference.

My daily driver is a 100% blank keyboard with no legends or lights at all. But I still bought a backlit keyboard to show off artisan keycaps and for the ascetics.

My next build will have accent lighting, but that still doesn't make see-through keycaps a necessity. Unless you really need light-up legends in a dark room.

[SpectreiiI]

If you plan on upgrading your board, no. I bought 5 different sets of backlit keys before I realized there aren't any quality options in today's market, save Tai-Hao whites; which only work on standard layout boards.

[Tactile]

I've never seen a set of backlit keycaps that I liked. I am, however, typing right now on a backlit keyboard. I just put caps on it that I like and the backlighting spills out around the caps. It looks great and it's an effect I like.

[tp4tissue]

I've always felt that backlit boards are kind of pointless without the see through caps..

But i guess we just call them Edge lit nowadays.. if you put non transparency caps on.

[kmba]

No. Low quality. Ugly. But, backlighting isn't worth anything either unless you really care about taking pretty pictures.

[Findecanor]

Yes, caps for backlighting are often - but not always - of lower quality than opaque caps.

And no, most of them are not see-through. Light shines through translucent plastic.

[Coreda]

From an initial glance over the title I was picturing this (excuse the quick photoshop):



Legends that float within frosted, translucent keycaps. Though obviously the topic's actually about legends that themselves are  transparent. Still an interesting concept.

[PleaseBeMyFriend]

Like others have said - personal preference. I like having backlight under non shine through legends.

[vim_commando]

No. Low quality. Ugly. But, backlighting isn't worth anything either unless you really care about taking pretty pictures.

That was my #1 reason for buying a backlit keyboard  )

From an initial glance over the title I was picturing this (excuse the quick photoshop):

(Attachment Link)

Legends that float within frosted, translucent keycaps. Though obviously the topic's actually about legends that themselves are  transparent. Still an interesting concept.

While it looks fantastic, I just can't think of a way to really pull that effect off very well. The stems would get in the way and keeping the legends oriented well while casting the key would be a production nightmare 

[Niomosy]

Depends on if you like them or not.  They're nice on a backlit keyboard when you want to look at the light show from the keyboard.  My kids were disappointed when I took the stock caps off my XMIT board as they liked the light show.

[LevelSteam]

If your keyboard is backlit and you lile the look I suppose. I personally prefer my keyboards to be non-lit except for the various lock or layer indicators. I have two boards that are backlit with Vortex PBT shine-through caps on them, and I like the look of those caps (the original ones from a couple years ago, before they changed the font), but in the off chance that I'm trying to find an infrequently used key in the dark I've found the glow from my monitor to be more than enough light.

[xtrafrood]

It's a thing. People buy them. Romer-G switch LEDs are centered in the switch. Seems to do the job. A common problem with translucent shot keycaps is uneven lighting. Romer-G dbl shot pbt/pom would be interesting.

[TelFiRE]

It's mostly a matter of whether you like the look or not, but also if you are really wanting to dive into custom keycap sets and the like you just won't find high-quality shine-throughs. The best on the market as far as I'm aware are the Vortex PBTs, and they do feel nice (using them now) but most people consider Vortex to be sub-par compared to GMK or SP.

For me personally, when I first got into considering mech keyboards a hobby, I really wanted to find high quality shine-through caps and I was very taken aback that they just don't exist. But I've come around to the fact that LEDs still look pretty good behind a high quality non-shine through cap (as long as you can't see the stem through it, I hate that look) with the light just shining around the edges of the caps. So, I've got a few keycap sets on order that do not have shine-through.

[rowdy]

You could replace the backlit keycaps with think non-backlit ones, turn up the brightness, and enjoy the underglow.

Or you could replace all the keycaps except those you need for a particular game and enjoy the relevant gaming keys backlit while the others are not.

[richard912]

All my boards have LEDs but because I have a passion for getting nice keycaps (which are not backlit compatible), they are kept OFF. In short, LED, RGB are redundant to me.

[Vladimir]

Totally unnecessary and mostly useless, but it can be kind of pretty, so whatever...

[DaBubbs]

I've never seen a set of backlit keycaps that I liked. I am, however, typing right now on a backlit keyboard. I just put caps on it that I like and the backlighting spills out around the caps. It looks great and it's an effect I like.

I agree and I had the same issue. I got a Code keyboard and hated the stock ABS keycaps. I got another see through double shot PBT set but not all of the keys lined up with the light under the keys so they all didn't light up. I looked at another see through set but people complained that they all did not shine up as well. I just gave up in the end and put a nice Cherry profile thick PBT set on it. Couldn't be happier and the faint light coming from under the keys still have a nice effect.

[OneNightFriend]

Agree with personal preference. Personally shine through doesn't seem to work well on caps with long worded legends. The lighting isn't consistent and I feel like that makes it seem cheap. If you want shine through your best bet for doing it decently well seems to be with a keeb that comes with stock shine through caps.

[TelFiRE]

Agree with personal preference. Personally shine through doesn't seem to work well on caps with long worded legends. The lighting isn't consistent and I feel like that makes it seem cheap. If you want shine through your best bet for doing it decently well seems to be with a keeb that comes with stock shine through caps.

I'm not sure why you'd go with stock caps over something like Vortex. The Vortex PBTs are actually really nice feeling caps. Every stock shine through I've seen is cheap thin abs.

[OneNightFriend]

Agree with personal preference. Personally shine through doesn't seem to work well on caps with long worded legends. The lighting isn't consistent and I feel like that makes it seem cheap. If you want shine through your best bet for doing it decently well seems to be with a keeb that comes with stock shine through caps.

I'm not sure why you'd go with stock caps over something like Vortex. The Vortex PBTs are actually really nice feeling caps. Every stock shine through I've seen is cheap thin abs.

I haven't seen the Vortex pbt in person but I was referring to the stock Pok3r caps, or even the stock CM MK Pro caps.

[TelFiRE]

Ah, gotcha, I haven't tried those ones, mostly Ducky and Razer